Tag Archives: Red tailed hawk

Hawk and tag

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Ecological Notes:

  • 1 Female Elephant Seal in the center of the island, looks like one of this years moms
  • 1 near mature Male Elephant Seal
  • 1 tagged yearling Elephant Seal male, tagged in California at the age of 23 days on 2022-02-19 …. reported to appropriate resource

Near adult male on left, tagged yearling male on the right

  • 3 Elephant Seal pups from this season on the boat ramp
  • A first for me here at Race Rocks …. noticed the panicking gulls were making a slightly different noise, and sure enough, instead of Eagles it was a Red Tailed hawk!

Visitors:

  • A Pearson College alumni (and past Eco-Guardian) is visiting Race Rocks for a couple weeks, for a visit and to offer time to volunteer on projects.

Facility Work and tasks:

  • Month end paperwork and reporting, including Seawater data
  • Monthly equalization charge and weekly battery fluids top up

DND events:

  • Ongoing detonations
  • Noted that when they do multiple blasts in close succession, there is a greater reaction from the Sea Lions and birds.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • Eco-Tourism vessels
  • 2 Kayakers,  that gave all wildlife a very good buffer, in the reserve at slack tide * note: they didn’t drop the fishing lure while they were in the reserve *

  • 3 private vessels visiting the reserve

 Noted Infractions:

  • 1 Private vessel did a highspeed bank turn and exited at full speed from well within the reserve…. Yes, this photo was taken after they left the reserve, and they had slowed a lot when they saw me come out with the camera

Weather Events:

  • Sunday, April 02:
    • Sky: Full range from high overcast, to clear with clouds to the south and north, to high overcast and mixed clouds
    • Wind: Variable calm-10 kts peaked to W 3 20 kts mid afternoon
    • Sea: lightly rippled
    • Temperature Low 4oC, High 8oC
  • Monday April 03, :
    • Sky:Mostly Clear to overcast
    • Wind: low WSW rising to W 30kts lat in the afternoon
    • Sea:  light chop turning to larger swells by evening
    • Temperature Low 4oC, High 7oC

 

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Mystery Raptor

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 6-10 NE throughout day
  • Sky: sunny with cloudy periods
  • Water: mostly calm

Boats/Visitors

  • had one whale watching boat cruise by
  • no visitors today

Ecological

  • saw a large brown raptor of some kind. I think it was a Red-tailed Hawk
  • lots of killdeer around
  • large elephant seal male is still on the island

Other

  • a lot of DND blasts today, very startling for the sea lions.

Welcome April

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Weather

  • The 6:45 AM weather report.
  • Visibility: 5 miles
  • Wind: 0-5 knots East
  • Sky: raining
  • Water: 1′ chop
  • Later on..
  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 25-30 knots West
  • Sky: clear and sunny!
  • Water: lots of whitecaps
  • Beautiful skies just before sunset today!
  • The above photos are almost like some sort of a panorama.

Ecological

  • Still the female and the weaner on Great Race.
  • I spied what I think is a red tailed hawk sitting on the edge of the helipad near sunset.

Maintenance

  • Ran the desalinator during the afternoon.
  • Worked on the March month end report.

Boats

  • One eco-tour came by today.

 

Nothing Subdued About a Westerly Gale

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The west wind came up sometime after midnight and was already blowing 25 to 30 knots at 04:00 in the morning. The wind rose more with the sun and blew 35 gusting to 40 most of the morning and early afternoon. Late afternoon it dropped to 25 – 30 knots. Although there were showers and some very dramatic looking thunderheads, west wind also tends to bring good weather and the barometer which had taken a dive overnight, spent the day climbing out of its hole. The forecast calls for the wind to drop to light after midnight.

Except for large sea-going vessels, sea conditions around Race Rocks and the central Juan de Fuca Strait area were unsuitable for safe boating. No small vessels were observed in or out of the Ecological Reserve today.

There were eight or nine Bald Eagles here today and as usual the gulls would all lift off when the eagles they passed over the flock. A smaller, more compact bird of prey that flew and behaved like a Peregrine Falcon but had a reddish tail like a Red-tailed Hawk made the gulls extra nervous this evening as the sun was setting. The light was not good enough to get a good look at it except to note that it was an exceptionally agile flyer in the heavy winds and from top view it had reddish, burnt sienna-coloured tail. It would swoop through the vegetated area about a half-meter off of the grass; pick up speed and then wheel up into the flock of gulls. The hawk (?) falcon landed on the rock beside camera five, a vantage point, then peeled off backwards with the wind as an eagle approached. It was almost half the size of the eagle.

It was a day dominated by wind and that is perhaps why the big female Northern Elephant Seal left early this morning. Other pinnipeds continued to haul-out as usual.

Sunshine powered the desalinator again today. The system’s media filter was back-flushed, rinsed and refilled and the 20-micron cartridge filter, replaced with a clean one. Other chores were more routine, such as fighting entropy. There were no visitors.

 

 

 

 

 

Unsettled Weather

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The last few days have seen many extremes in weather, from 50 knot Westerlies with hail to gorgeous, clear, sunny and warm afternoons. I enjoy watching the squall fronts marching up the Juan de Fuca Strait, passing over me, and then moving on to affect Victoria.

Stunning cloudscapes
Stunning cloudscapes
Race Rocks Tidal Rips
Race Rocks Tidal Rips

We were visited by a red-tailed hawk a few days ago. I didn’t observe it preying upon anything; the gulls are a bit too big for it to take on I think….

Hawk landing on the Anemometer
Hawk landing on the Anemometer
Hawk perched on the Anemometer
Hawk perched on the Anemometer

There are about 15 Elephant Seals in the reserve at this time, mostly juveniles. 3 of them are using Great Race as their haul-out while the others are on Middle Rock and can be observed using the live webcams: http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/video1.htm

3 Juvenile E-seals April 2013 including Tag 5086, a visitor from last spring.
3 Juvenile E-seals April 2013 including Tag 5086, a visitor from last spring.

 

A New Mammal on the Island!

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Julie has arrived! She will be taking over Eco-Guardian for the summer, keeping a close eye on our animal neighbours, monitoring human activity in the reserve, and doing the maintenance and upkeep required to keep the station running. I will be training her over the next few weeks.

Hungry Red-tailed Hawk

In other news, we had a visit from a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo Jamaicensis) a few days ago.

 

 

 

 

The Chase

I was lucky enough to capture this action-shot as it swept overhead.

 

 

Red-tailed Hawk in Flight

 

 

 

 

June continues to be rather dismal and cold. Temperature has averaged about 12 degrees Celsius here with a high of 15.2…. pout.